And there went March

Intentions to write here weekly just don't seemed to get followed through on, sorry.

The big news here is that the house next door is for sale, only €50,000 for the small house, barns and a bit more land than we have. The family is selling the house to pay for the elderly owner's care. (Her husband died two years ago.) They've been busy cleaning out a hundred years or more of accumulation around the place. They've also cut down an ancient wisteria and some plum trees; we're not sure why. The house is cheap because it's small and there is no fosse septique. We haven't been able to find it online yet, but will post a link if we do. (There may be another house for sale in our village; while walking Pogo one morning, we met a man that we think was a real estate agent.)

Ed has bought most of the materials for replacing the roof of the woodshed. The temporary "roof" has held through sunshine and rain and some high wind yesterday, so we expect it to last a few  more weeks. Meanwhile he's repaired our "gazebo" so we'll be able to eat outside in the shade again soon.

Early in the month we went to another loto, a game similar to bingo and thus very good for our numbers in French. It was a loto gastronomique in benefit of the parents association for the local schools; all the prizes we food-related and all included a sack of potatoes, which got to be a running joke. We won nothing, as usual, but one of our friends gave us the ham that she won in the raffle at the end. This is hanging in the kitchen right now, waiting for some inspiration and a meeting with a sharp knife.

Besides the loto we've been a two really nice concerts, a string quartet playing at the church in Montbron and a piano recital at a new-to-us theater in Limoges.

Most of March was lovely, sunny, and even unseasonably warm. The ground dried enough to start mowing, although the mole hills are bad enough to make that difficult, especially down on the South Forty. When spring arrived properly on the equinox, it brought along rain. We're hoping yesterday's high wind is bringing more mild and dry weather. Bulbs and fruit trees are blooming like mad.